Physicist Stephen Hawking and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk have joined scores of artificial intelligence and robotics experts calling for a ban on “offensive autonomous weapons” in an open letter published Monday.

“AI technology has reached a point where the deployment of such systems is–practically if not legally–feasible within years, not decades, and the stakes are high,” reads the letter, which the Guardianreports will be presented Wednesday at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires. “Autonomous weapons have been described as the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms.”

The letter distinguishes AI weapons, which can select and attack targets without human orders, from drones and cruise missiles whose targets are selected by humans. The letter also says that while artificial intelligence can make war zones safer for members of the military, weapons that can operate without human control would kick off “a global AI arms race.”

“It will only be a matter of time until they appear on the black market and in the hands of terrorists, dictators,” and other bad actors, the signatories warn. “There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people.”

Other signees include Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak as well as DeepMind founder and Google executive Demis Hassabis.

See the Most Iconic Artificial Intelligence in Film

False Maria – Metropolis, 1927

Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

HAL 9000 – 2001: A Space Odyssey, 1968

MGM

R2D2 – Star Wars, 1977

Lucasfilm

Lucasfilm

Tron – Tron, 1982

Buena Vista

WOPR/Joshua – WarGames, 1983

Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Dot Matrix – Spaceballs, 1987

MGM

Johnny 5 – Short Circuit 2, 1988

TriStar

The Terminator – Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991

TriStar

T-1000 – Terminator 2: Judgement Day, 1991

TriStar

Agent Smith – The Matrix, 1999

Warner Bros.

Andrew Martin – Bicentennial Man, 1999

Touchstone Pictures

David – A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 2001

Warner Bros.

Gigolo Joe – A.I. Artificial Intelligence, 2001

Warner Bros.

Sonny – I, Robot, 2004

20th Century Fox

Marvin – The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, 2005

Touchstone Pictures

Optimus Prime – Transformers, 2007

DreamWorks

Wall-E – Wall-E, 2008

Pixar/Disney

Samantha – Her, 2013

Warner Bros.

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